Thursday, March 27, 2014

Faculty X’ed: FAQ on EdX

Colgate and Hamilton have jointly announced that they are
joining the EdX consortium. This
initiative was first mentioned by the Deans (Doug Hicks and Pat Reynolds) at
February faculty meetings and then formally launched on March 6.

What did the Deans say
prior to launch?

Both Deans emphasized outreach to alumni and
prospective students

Doug Hicks: “ We are looking for
ways to reach out to alumni groups as

well as to our admissions base…”

Pat Reynolds: “[A]nything we do
with edX is basically a C&D

[Communications and Development?] initiative
about outreach to alumni…”

Both Deans stated that EdX is unrelated to the
curriculum:

Doug Hicks:
“[EdX] presents materials online in a non-credit model

and thus Colgate’s involvement would not connect to our on-campus

curricular programs.”

Pat
Reynolds: “These offerings are
unconnected to our curriculum and

akin to the “alumni colleges (faculty
speaking to alums on academic topics)

that we offer at reunions.

Both Deans mentioned that joining EdX would
involve offering public courses: two from each college in the first year.

What did the Deans not
say?

Any explanation of what it means to offer a
public course.

Anything about costs to the colleges from
joining EdX.

Any indication of the length of the contractual
obligation made to EdX or whether there is a public course obligation beyond
the first year.

What is a public
course?

A public course is open to anyone who registers
(registration is free) with EdX. Harvard
and MIT, EdX co-founders, have recently released a series of working papers on
courses offered in the first year of EdX.

In the first year, an average EdX course had 52,605
registrants. Of those registrants, 35%
never even looked at the course materials and another 56% viewed
less than half the available course material.
About two-thirds of the remaining 9% of students received a certificate
testifying that they had successfully passed the course. The 2,700 students (on average) who received
certificates in a course seem to have passed the course based on
multiple-choice exams.

What is a certificate?

EdX offers Honor Code certificates in courses and Verified
certificates (where the registrant’s identity is actually verified) in a
smaller subset of courses.

No. The Strategic
Planning working group on Teaching and Learning discussed MOOCs (including EdX)
extensively and concluded:

B. Establishing a Philosophical Framework for
Moving Forward

Thus we
remain committed to the Colgate model. However, we should not ignore the
opportunities that online educational approaches might offer. How do we
approach these opportunities? The TLWG recommends that Colgate be guided by the
question of whether they allow students and faculty to engage with and
challenge each other.

• Will
faculty be able to work with all students in the course, to comment on work,
and to develop one-on-one relationships?

• Will
students get to know each other and have the opportunity to grow intellectually
from this interaction?

• Is the
online opportunity incorporating a significant synchronous component, in which participants
are engaged at the same time?

While we
recognize that many online courses might meet these ideals, the residential
nature of our mission requires that we limit the number and type of online
experiences.

Recommendation

We
recommend continued exploration of ways in which Colgate might take advantage
of online opportunities, including experimentation with some online
programming. We believe that online education will continue to evolve and that
we not move aggressively until the direction becomes clear and is well-matched
to our educational vision.

What might happen if
faculty were given a vote on joining EdX?

Amherst College faculty were allowed to make the decision on
whether Amherst would join EdX and voted the proposal down. Press reports indicated that Amherst faculty
had serious reservations about issuing Amherst-endorsed certificates in EdX
public courses and that the fees EdX charges are significant.

2 comments:

My main concern about this initiative it that it draws faculty time and talent away from our core mission of teaching and research to essentially serve the interests of alumni affairs. Is this the best way to spend faculty time to advance our strategic aims?

As a liberal arts college in the "premium" sector of the higher ed landscape, Colgate should be focused like a laser on delivering high-impact educational practices like undergraduate research, service learning, project-based learning, off-campus study, etc. The institution should also be very cognizant of supporting a scholarly faculty to deliver this kind of high-impact educational environment. Online learning has not yet made the list of these high-impact educational practices, and developing on-line learning materials is time-intensive. I would rather see that time invested in teaching and scholarship that has a direct impact on our enrolled students.

While not exactly a scam, EdX is a sham. Their courses appear to be "programmed" learning in the worst sense of the word: there is a real disconnect between instructors' content, the testing of that content (by algorithm, of course), and course "learning." In fact, this disconnect is so egregious, I have come to believe that the EdX course structure is entirely computer-generated. They simply videotape some instructors, develop simple tests based--sort of--on what is said, and write programs to grade those tests. Believe, a trained monkey could pass, especially since the tests are typically three-answer multiple choice, and you get a second try if you get it wrong! Puh-leez! Don't be fooled by the EdX marketing pitch. You won't learn much, and there is a charge to get a "certificate" of completion. It's really just a bait-and-switch "certificate-selling" service. I'm surprised such prestigious organizations have linked up with them.